Ways not Works
This section originally appeared within the "Spiritual Intelligence" section of Part II of the Manifesto, entitled The Prophetic Dimension. This section, and where it appears within Spiritual Intelligence, is indicated below, followed by the text of the section * Normal Intelligence * Paranormal Intelligence * Biblical Examples of Spiritual Intelligence * Prophetic History in CAWKI * God's GPS * Amos 3:7 Principle * Ways not Works * Disciples that God seeks "Preach to the tree!" * Industrial Revolutions compared * The Inspiration Age (the 4th Industrial Revolution) * Prophetic Pictures * Benjamins * Prophetic Warnings * When the Stones cry out ---- How do we hear God in such a way that it truly points us into the right, and possibly strategic, direction? How do we hear God’s voice – and do what he says? In the Old Testament, we find a distinct difference among the people of God. There were those who were interested in his works – and those who were asking about his ways. All of them who joined the Exodus, for example, had ample chances to see God in action: thunder, lightning, smoke, trumpets, quails, manna, the parting of the Red Sea, water springing out of the rock. However, when there was a miracle, many who were only works and action oriented found it easy to walk away from God, to participate in casting a golden calf, to murmur, and look back longingly to their safe jobs in Egypt – including an allowance of onion and garlic -- but not so, the “friends of God.” They were not looking for God’s hands, “please do something for me,” but for his face. “Let me know your ways,” prays Moses on the Sinai (“Show me your ways, O Lord,” asks David in Psalm 25. “How can I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” says God in Gen 18:17). And then God confers to him (as well as to Moses) possibly the highest title available on earth: “My friend.” How do we become such “friends of God” again? In intelligence language, we see here a group of people with a top secret security rating from God, who were given access to classified information stored with God that, no, not everyone had a right to know. Probably also within your acquaintance there are prophetically gifted people of God who have been given “keys to the Kingdom” – a PIN code protected access to a top secret and classified pool of highly sensitive and future relevant information that sits in the presence of God. Many modern day friends of God, prophets who have been called by God to seek out the voice of God not just for themselves, but for others (and even whole nations), tell of three phases in their own journey with God towards this: # I and God. This is the phase to build a deeper and more intimate relationship with God than others do; to simply invest more time, energy, passion, to even take days off or even take holidays for that, like Christians do on the various prayer mountains in Kampala, Seoul, Lüdenscheid, and other places. # God for others. This is where you seek God’s face not because of yourself and your problems and questions, but because and on behalf of other people. “God, what do you say to my neighbor, colleague, friend, enemy, boss, president?” This is where we read the Bible – for others! Once we have put aside our own ego, we might start to hear God for others. And once we begin to pass on what we have heard, we begin to become God’s postman, his delivery staff, handing out his letters and parcels to others. # God and I. This is when we come to God and say: “All my own problems, issues, friends aside – what is it, Lord, that is on your heart, independent of my own perspective? Lord, where are you going, what will you do, and why are you doing it? Please show me your ways.” You learn to “separate yourself for God,” like it is excellently described in the booklet “Set apart for God” by John Mulinde. And to become a little odd and absent-minded is probably a natural part of such a life… Again and again, people who have embarked on such a journey tell that God is definitely field-testing our allegiance and our ability to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). In regards to this compulsory testing by God, no one I have heard of has moved on to a significant ministry in the prophetic who has not been challenged to follow God’s directive over and above human reason. Paul Cain has once put it like this: “God is offending our mind in order to reveal our heart.” If this puts you off because, let’s say, you absolutely want to be in control at all times or you are so committed to a theologically or ideologically safe system, then let me prophesy to you that you will hardly ever move into this dimension unless you change right here. God will simply use those who understand that God values trust more than action based on logical convictions. Would Peter ever have walked on water when Jesus called him to do so if he had insisted first to see scientific research papers written on “Where does this water-walking business work in Europe?” An important case in point is Moses, an apostolic leader God had been preparing for 80 years. In the desert, God met him and asked him a simple yet profound question: “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said: “Throw it on the ground!” Imagine for a brief moment what went on inside the head of Moses, with all his 40 years of academic upbringing in Egypt, plus 40 years of desert experience. His shepherd’s staff was not only the symbol of his trade, it was his support, his weapon, his strength, something to rely on. To throw it away in the middle of the desert was anything but logical. It made no sense! And then it became worse. The staff turned into a snake and Moses started running from it. One moment he leans on it, a symbol of his strength, and within a second, the thing has changed its nature and turned into a nightmare. Moses goes from loving his staff to hating it within the blink of an eye. And, to top it all, Gods voice comes back and challenges him: “Pick it up by the tail!” I remember once asking some Indian snake handlers what would happen if you picked up a poisonous snake by the tail. They clucked, humored by the thought, and said: “Sahib, easy. You can do it, sure, but only once. You want to be sure to be bitten by the snake, just pick it up by the tail. It will turn in a flash and definitely bite you. Poisonous snakes are picked up behind the head, not the tail!” Now do you think Moses, with all his desert experience, did not know that? And here he was put to the test, what to trust more: His own 80 years of experience, his logical reasoning, and medical insights, right at a spot in the world where not even today you would find a clinic with snake serum – let alone 3500 years ago – or God and his seemingly illogical orders. Moses chose God over his own reason – and passed the test. God knew then that this man trusted him enough in life-or-death situations to be given a leadership role in the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses, an old man with a stick, became God’s master plan for delivering Israel out of Egypt.